chris_chi24 said:

Albumin binding above 99% is the whole reason weekly dosing works, and it is also why the trough matters more than the peak.

Agreed, though "tolerable" needs defining. A dose you tolerate by eating almost nothing is not tolerated, it is being paid for somewhere else — usually in lean mass, sometimes in adherence three months later.

Worth separating that from semaglutide, which this thread keeps folding into the same question. They behave differently and the advice does not transfer.

sarah_nash92 said:

The oral formulation has different absorption behaviour and the dose numbers are not interchangeable, which is worth saying out loud because people…

That reframing is the part I needed. Sending this to two other people who asked me the same thing last week.

chris_chi24 said:

Albumin binding above 99% is the whole reason weekly dosing works, and it is also why the trough matters more than the peak.

I will push back on the "any working dose is fine" framing. The maintenance evidence sits overwhelmingly at the top studied dose, and the extension data shows regain tracking dose reduction rather than tracking stopping. Holding low is reasonable; pretending it is evidentially equivalent is not.

One concrete data point for the thread. One practical note: write down what you did and when, before you need it. Reconstructing a timeline from memory three months later is how people end up unable to answer the one question that would have resolved it.

Moderator note: leaving this open. It is being argued well and the disagreement is the useful part. No action needed from anybody.